RJN: 12.08.05 Christoph Cardinal…

Christoph Cardinal Schönborn kicked off quite a discussion with his New York Times essay on neo-Darwinism and Christian faith this past summer. In the forthcoming issue of F IRST T HINGS , he expands on the argument he is making. His article is titled “The Designs of Science.” For instance, there is this:

"Instead, my argument was based on the natural ability of the human intellect to grasp the intelligible realities that populate the natural world, including most clearly and evidently the world of living substances, living beings. Nothing is intelligible¯nothing can be grasped in its essence by our intellects¯without first being ordered by a creative intellect. The possibility of modern science is fundamentally grounded on the reality of an underlying creative intellect that makes the natural world what it is. The natural world is nothing less than a mediation between minds: the unlimited mind of the Creator and our limited human minds. Res ergo naturalis inter duos intellectus constituta ¯’The natural thing is constituted between two intellects,’ in the words of St. Thomas. In short, my argument was based on careful examination of the evidence of everyday experience; in other words, on philosophy." (To become a subscriber to F IRST T HINGS , check out the “Subscribe” button above.)

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